Jack Gunston the forward is back this year and he hopes to have fellow premiership-winning Hawk Cyril Rioli alongside him from the start.
Gunston's reinvention as a defender amid Hawthorn's injury crisis last season was successful, but he confirmed on Monday ahead of his 150th game he would return to attack in 2018.
The Hawks will start their bid to make it back to the finals when they face Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday night, with Rioli's playing status one of the key talking points.
The 2015 Norm Smith medallist skipped the JLT Community Series as he got back into shape after spending much of the pre-season in Alice Springs caring for his father, who underwent heart surgery.
"He's trained really strongly the last few weeks and he looks good on the track, but come Thursday, hopefully he's in the frame for selection," Gunston said of Rioli.
"It's always nice to have a few games under your belt (going into round one), but everyone's different.
"Cyril looks great out there and he looks like he's pretty much ready to play, but it's whether he feels right in his body or the medical staff thinks he's right to go – we'll just have to wait and see."
Rioli was one of several star Hawks to miss large chunks of the 2017 season because of injury, along with Grant Birchall, James Frawley, Ben Stratton and the now-retired Josh Gibson.
The once-durable Birchall has had multiple setbacks on his troublesome right knee in the pre-season and will miss at least the first three months of this year.
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But Gunston said the returning Frawley and Stratton – rather than himself – would bolster a backline that features emerging talents James Sicily and Ryan Burton.
"Burton and Sicily played great footy down there and matured as the games went on last year," he said.
"They've taken it to another level and they're exciting players and they play with passion, so that's what you want to see when you're out there and when they're coming off the half-back line."
Hawthorn's infamous 1-5 start to last year has not left Gunston's mind after the Hawks missed finals for the first time since 2009.
They won five games and drew the other in a stretch between rounds 14 and 19 to briefly re-enter the post-season frame, but ultimately finished 12th, six points behind eighth-placed West Coast.
Gunston credited Hawthorn's improved second-half form to a bolder playing style, young teammates' development and the "freedom" of falling off the finals radar.
Critical to avoiding another wasted season, he said, was to bring that same attitude from round one.
"Footy's a fickle game," Gunston said.
"We went into the (2017) season with pretty high hopes and you can be confident one week and then I guess things don't go your way and it's a matter of how you respond.
"It took us a few weeks to be able to respond and there was a lot of soul-searching at the time and a lot of conversations had.
"But it was great as a footy club that we could get to the halfway mark and reassess and really propel there, which holds us in good stead coming into this year."
